Category Archives for "Podcast"

Anybody can be a Kona qualifier: genetics is not your limiter with Alan Cozens | EP#186

Alan Couzens is a coach and exercise physiologist in Boulder, Colorado. Through his laboratory testing of a large number of athletes over a long time period he has found that triathlon and endurance sports potential (specifically VO2max) is far more trainable and less limited by genetics than what most textbooks and university courses would have us believe. In fact, most triathletes may actually have the potential to qualify for Kona – with the right training.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• How trainable is VO2max really?
• Why do most athletes fail to reach their athletic potential even though they are putting in a lot of hard work?
• What is the right way to train to reach your athletic potential?
• The importance of training at the first lactate/ventilatory threshold (aerobic threshold)
• The importance of proper testing so you can do the right testing for you
• When to use heart rate vs. pace/power in training

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Polarised training Q&A and Mikael’s perspectives part 2 | EP#185

An in-depth discussion and Q&A session on the ins and outs and dos and don’ts of polarised training for triathletes and endurance athletes in general. This episode is part 2 of a Q&A follow-up to the extremely popular interview with the godfather of polarised training, Dr. Stephen Seiler in EP#177.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• How can polarised training apply to age-group triathletes?
• Polarised training for beginner athletes, masters athletes, and for longevity and health (rather than performance)
• Periodisation with polarised training
• Differences in applying polarised training between disciplines, distances and events
• The physiology of polarised training

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Training and racing with a power meter in 2019 with Hunter Allen | EP#184

Hunter Allen, is head coach and founder of Peaks Coaching Group. He is also the co-author (together with Dr. Andrew Coggan and Dr. Stephen McGregor) of arguably the most widely recognised cycling training book in the world: “Training and Racing with a Power Meter”. Hunter and colleagues have now released the third edition of this book to keep it up to date with recent developments, and he joins us to discuss training and racing with a power meter in 2019.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• What’s new about training and racing with a power meter (in general, and the book) in 2019 compared to the previous edition of the book?
• What’s in training and racing with a power meter for more beginner cyclists/triathletes and very advanced athletes, respectively?
• How to use power AND heart rate together
• How to do a proper FTP-test, and where people get it wrong
• Training strategies, typical weekly structures, workout progressions and more for the cycling part of triathlon training

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Strength training for triathlon and endurance sports part 2 with Menachem Brodie | EP#183

Menachem Brodie is one of the leading strength training coaches for cyclists and triathletes. Among other achievements, he has been heavily involved in USA Cycling and educating USAC coaches since 2011, and is the creator of the Training Peaks course “Strength Training for Triathlon Success”. In this two-part episode, we dive deep into a number of important aspects triathletes and endurance athletes need to know when it comes to strength training.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• Benefits of strength training for triathletes and endurance athletes
• How much strength training should you be doing?
• What should your strength training consist of?
• The importance of assessments in strength training
• How to fit in strength training around swim, bike and run workouts
• Periodisation of strength training over a year or an entire triathlon season

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Strength training for triathlon and endurance sports part 1 with Menachem Brodie | EP#182

Menachem Brodie is one of the leading strength training coaches for cyclists and triathletes. Among other achievements, he has been heavily involved in USA Cycling and educating USAC coaches since 2011, and is the creator of the Training Peaks course “Strength Training for Triathlon Success”. In this two-part episode, we dive deep into a number of important aspects triathletes and endurance athletes need to know when it comes to strength training.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• Benefits of strength training for triathletes and endurance athletes
• How much strength training should you be doing?
• What should your strength training consist of?
• The importance of assessments in strength training
• How to fit in strength training around swim, bike and run workouts
• Periodisation of strength training over a year or an entire triathlon season

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Endurance sports nutrition: state of the art in 2019 with prof. John Hawley | EP#181

Professor John Hawley is one of the leading researchers in the world on sports nutrition, the interaction between exercise and diet on fat and carbohydrate regulation, and the cellular and molecular basis of endurance sports adaptations. He gives us a complete update on what we actually know as of today about endurance sports nutrition, and where evidence is still lacking.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• Nailing the basics of endurance sports nutrition – what’s most important to consider and get right?
• Getting clear on commonly misunderstood terminology in the field of nutrition
• Beyond the basics: the impact on endurance performance of manipulating carbohydrate availability, nutrition periodisation, and day to day diet
• Fat, carbs, and their impact on inflammation and recovery, insulin response, and body composition
• How do elite endurance athletes actually eat?
• Common myths about and mistakes amateur athletes make with nutrition

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Cycling movement quality and using the Leomo Type-R to assess it with Sebastian Weber | EP#180

Sebastian Weber is a sports scientist and highly successful coach, in both professional sports (having worked with athletes like Peter Sagan, Tony Martin, and André Greipel) and with age-group endurance athletes. He is also the co-founder of the physiological performance software INSCYD. In this episode we discuss cycling technique, quality of movement, and holding a good (aerodynamic) position, and how the LEOMO Type-R device can be used to improve these important but easily forgotten aspects of cycling and triathlon cycling.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• The importance of quality of movement in cycling, and how it has become somewhat forgotten in a world obsessed with power.
• The LEOMO Type-R device, and how it can measure quality of movement in a large variety of ways to help assess and inform training.
• Examples of common issues regarding quality of movement and how to correct them.
• How to use the LEOMO Type-R to improve aerodynamics.
• How much should triathletes and time trialists train in the TT-position.
• Is the LEOMO Type-R a good investment for age-group triathletes?

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Nike Vaporfly 4% – can these shoes really make you run faster? with Wouter Hoogkamer | EP#179

The Nike Vaporfly 4% running shoes are supposed to improve running economy by 4%. Wouter Hoogkamer, PhD, is one of the researchers who found out that this improvement is actually legit. What’s more, he has researched how much faster that improvement in running economy could make you. In today’s episode we discuss the Vaporfly 4% shoes, running shoes in general, running economy, breaking two hours for the marathon, and more.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• The Nike Vaporfly 4% shoes, and how Wouter and his colleagues at the University of Colorado verified that they can reduce the energetic cost of running a given speed by 4%.
• Running economy, and how improvements in it translates to improvements in speed. Slower runners may benefit more from the 4% shoes than faster runners.
• Footwear in general, and the tradeoff between cushioning (which is good for running economy) and weight (which is bad for running economy)
• The impact of drafting in running – how much energy can it save you?

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Polarised training Q&A and Mikael’s thoughts and perspective | EP#178

An in-depth discussion and Q&A session on the ins and outs and dos and don’ts of polarised training for triathletes and endurance athletes in general. This episode is a follow-up to the extremely popular interview with the godfather of polarised training, Dr. Stephen Seiler in EP#177.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• Personal case examples from Mikael Eriksson’s and Stephen Seiler’s training and resulting performance improvements
• Common objections to polarised training
• How can polarised training apply to age-group triathletes?
• Polarised training for beginner athletes, masters athletes, and for longevity and health (rather than performance)
• Periodisation with polarised training
• How to execute low-intensity workouts correctly
• How to execute high-intensity workouts correctly

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Polarised training with Stephen Seiler, PhD | EP#177

Stephen Seiler, PhD, is known for his research on how elite endurance athletes actually train. In this research, he discovered that most endurance athletes spend the majority of their training time (~90%) at very low intensities (below the first lactate/ventilatory threshold) with most of the remainder of the training time spent at high intensities (above the second lactate/ventilatory threshold), with little time spent in between. This training intensity distribution has become popularised and known as ‘polarised training’.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• What is polarised training, and what is the evidence behind it?
• Polarised training and “pyramidal training” – the nuances of training for different kinds of endurance sports and events
• Does polarised training work for time-limited age group triathletes?
• How to set up your training zones and intensities correctly (and the dangers of short-cutting FTP-tests)
• Triathlon-specific considerations with polarised training

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